Essex v Surrey – T20 Blast South Group – Chelmsford
Essex…166-5
Surrey…165-4
Essex cruised to a comfortable five wicket victory over top-of-the-table rivals Surrey in the T20 Blast at Chelmsford.
Mark Pettini's 42 from 29 balls was the stand out of a great team performance that fired the Eagles ever-closer to the quarter-finals.
Ryan ten Doeschate saw his side over the line with a powerful 40 from just 30 deliveries.
On a glorious evening, Essex skipper ten Doeschate won the toss and elected to bowl.
Jason Roy got the Lions off to a decent start, hitting the first ball of the match for four through gully, before smashing Matt Salisbury over his head for a six.
Salisbury managed to clean bowl Steven Davies (13), which brought Kevin Pietersen to the crease to a chorus of boos.
Essex managed to tie the Surrey batsmen down, allowing only 35 runs to come from the powerplay overs.
Phillips then got the big wicket of Pietersen (1) in the seventh over, with a neat stumping from James Foster down the legside.
Roy smashed Salisbury for another six over his head, but was then bowled by Ravi Bopara for 29 off 24 balls, with Surrey 66-3 at the halfway stage.
Kevin O'Brien then despatched Reece Topley for a six over long-on as he and skipper Gary Wilson looked to kick-start the innings.
The Irishman hit a couple of streaky fours before then smacking Topley again for a huge six into the crowd.
Wilson then hit two fours off Graham Napier before ten Doeschate finally caught O'Brien for 33 off 22 balls.
The Surrey skipper moved onto 50 from 34 balls, with the Lions unable to really get away from Essex. Azhar Mahmood (13) helped his side reach 165 from their 20 overs, with Wilson finishing on 63 not out.
Phillips bowled tightly as he finished on 1-25 from his four overs, as Bopara's set took 2-29.
The Essex reply got off to a poor start when Jesse Ryder (0) was caught behind third ball of the innings.
Tom Westley came to the crease and looked in good touch, first tucking away Mahmood through mid-wicket for four before cutting Tom Curran to the boundary next over.
Mark Pettini got in on the act, despatching Robin Peterson over his head for the first Essex six of the innings as they moved past 50 in the fifth over.
Westley got to 38 off just 19 balls before he was trapped LBW by O'Brien with the score on 62-2.
Bopara came to the crease and made his mark by placing the veteran Gareth Batty over mid-on for a six.
The Essex batsman took singles at will and Surrey were unable to stem the flow of boundaries as the Eagles moved on to 91-2 after ten.
Bopara then hit another six, this time from Matt Dunn, before the ball rapped into his pads and he was given out LBW for 24.
Dunn then bowled Pettini (42) in the same over with ten Doeschate and Ben Foakes starting to rotate the strike.
Foakes (4) soon went caught and bowled O'Brien, but Foster (9 not out) came in and swiped Curran to the mid-wicket boundary for six.
Fantastic running between the two meant that Essex only needed 18 from 18 balls, with ten Doeschate then letting loose on Dunn.
A six and a four in the 18th over left the Eagles needing just three from the final two overs, which the skipper duly delivered.
↧